This has been always one of my fav Quinn movies, but is also a great cinematic experience. Quinn does seem to grunt, but it's the non verbal, tortured intensity that he brings to Barrabbas that's powerful and sad. Jack Palance is great as the psycho gladiator, and almost steals the show. Why doesn't anyone remember this Palance role? It's amazing!
The gladiator sequences are also amazing and it should not be surprising that Crowe's "Gladiator" movie is totally influenced from this film. Quinn's showdown and defeat of Palance is one of the best sequences on film. I can't believe that this film is practically forgotten when topics of great films are discussed! C'mon people..
I concur that this movie was quite a visceral experience. I thought Barabbas' character well represented an uncomplicated physical man, a perpetual outsider, a survivor, a thug, but with a human soul searching for the answer why one who was revered should die in his place. He was incredibly believable - I kept thinking that if we could take a man out of the First Century Roman Empire - he would be just like Barabbas.
The character of Torvald, the psycho gladiator, was also incredibly believable. An elite Roman killing machine - a man drunk on his prowess to deal death as spectacle to the cheers of the bloodthirsty Roman mob - until he himself became the object of the spectacle. I think that Torvald recognized in Barabbas a man who does not give up - hence, he was a man worth conquering. That was why there was that connection between them. There is always a connection between rivals. And there is always a connection between captor and captive. This connection can only be resolved when one rival does in the other. And when the captor releases the captive.
Psycho Gladiator. Perfect term for that role. Palance was brilliant! The Gladiator School scenes kicked ass. It's really too bad most people seem to never have even heard of this film!
One part of the movie I liked was Barabbas' outfit, which was closer to what a Judean peasant of the period actually wore than the Bedouin type clothing generally found in Biblical films.